How people think “if only …” about reasons for actions

When people think about how a situation might have turned out differently, they tend to imagine counterfactual alternatives to their actions. We report the results of three experiments which show that people imagine alternatives to actions differently when they know about a reason for the action. The first experiment (n = 36) compared reason – action sequences to cause – effect sequences. It showed that people do not imagine alternatives to reasons in the way they imagine alternatives to causes: they imagine an alternative to an action more than an effect, and to a cause more than a reason. The second experiment (n = 214) and the third experiment (n = 190) both show that different sorts of reasons have different sorts of effects on how people imagine alternatives to actions. People imagine an alternative to an action (the protagonist went to a ball) less often when they know the reason for the action was an obligation (he had to participate in fundraising) compared to when they know about a weaker reason (he wanted to meet a famous violinist) or no reason. The second experiment shows the effect for a social obligation and the third experiment replicates and extends it to a health obligation. We interpret the results in terms of the possibilities that people keep in mind about actions and their reasons.     

Can Civility Norms Boost Positive Effects of Management Commitment to Safety?

We proposed that civility norms would strengthen relationships between management commitment to safety and workers' safety motivation, safety behaviors, and injuries. Survey data were obtained from working adults in hazardous jobs—those for which physical labor is required and/or a realistic possibility of physical injury is present (N = 290). Results showed that management commitment positively related to workers' safety motivation, safety participation, and safety compliance, and negatively related to minor injuries. Furthermore, management commitment to safety displayed a stronger positive relationship with safety motivation and safety participation, and a stronger negative relationship with minor worker injuries when civility norms were high (versus low). The results confirm existing known relationships between management commitment to safety and worker safety motivation and behavior; furthermore, civility norms facilitate the relationships between management commitment to safety and various outcomes important to worker safety. In order to promote an optimally safe working environment, managers should demonstrate a commitment to worker safety and promote positive norms for interpersonal treatment between workers in their units.     

Can the Family Assessment Device (FAD) Be Used with School Aged Children?

This article examines the usefulness of the Family Assessment Device(FAD) in assessing family functioning with school-aged children (under 12 years of age) compared to children 12 and older and mothers. FAD reports from 194 children with asthma (132 under 12 years; 62 12 years and older) were evaluated in comparison to mothers' FAD reports as well as mothers' reports on two other family functioning measures: the Family Inventory of Life Events (FILE) and the Impact on Family (IOF) scale, both relevant to functioning in families with children with asthma. Although FAD scale reliabilities were lowest in younger children (alpha = 48-.79), good concurrent validity was found with mothers' reports on the three different measures of family functioning. Older childrens' FAD scales showed good reliability (> .70) but poorer agreement with the various maternal measures. With modifications to make items more structured and simplified, the FAD could be tried with younger children, although documentation of improved reliability is needed before more widespread use with school-aged children is advocated. The measure already shows good agreement with maternal report in this younger age group, which likely would be strengthened with improved reliability. FAD reports in older children correlated less well with maternal measures, but may represent nonredundant information on family health from an independent perspective and are worth considering in addition to mothers' perspectives.     

A Multitrait–Multisource Confirmatory Factor Analytic Approach to the Construct Validity of ADHD and ODD Rating Scales with Malaysian Children

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to model a multitrait by multisource matrix to determine the convergent and discriminant validity of measures of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-inattention (IN), ADHD-hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI), and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) in 917 Malaysian elementary school children. The three trait factors were ADHD-IN, ADHD-HI, and ODD. The two source factors were parents and teachers. Similar to earlier studies with Australian and Brazilian children, the parent and teacher measures failed to show convergent and discriminant validity with Malaysian children. The study outlines the implications of such strong source effects in ADHD-IN, ADHD-HI, and ODD measures for the use of such parent and teacher scales to study the symptom dimensions.